Some open pore materials used in thermal protection systems (“TPS s”) have undesired associated surface effects that can interfere with functioning of the TPS. An example of this is phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (“PICA”), which is used and will be used to protect a space vehicle that is entering or re-entering an atmosphere surrounding a planet or satellite. A Strain Isolation Pad (SIP) may be required when bonding the PICA to the rigid aeroshell of a space vehicle. For example the SIP helps alleviate thermal expansion differences between the PICA and the substructure. If the PICA is bonded to the SIP, premature failure at strengths lower than the strength of the virgin PICA is observed at the PICA-SIP interface Additionally, some of the phenolic is often shed as a powder or other substance at room temperature or above, leading to handling problems. However, re-processing of the entire material (surface layers and bulk) after its initial fabrication may interfere with or degrade some of the desirable features of the material.
What is needed is a re-processing technique that: (1) does not add new chemical elements to the composition of the initial material; (2) does not require re-processing of the entire material; (3) allows some control over one or more resulting physical and/or chemical parameters of the re-processed material; (4) provides an improvement in one or more parameters (e.g., failure strength and failure location) associated with response to the real environment; (5) does not result in a substantial increase in density of the re-processed material; and (6) has an associated re-processing time that is relatively short (e.g., a few minutes to a few hours).